Despite promises from executives, shaming from outsiders and even goading from the federal government, tech companies still lack women, Latinos and African Americans. So an Oakland venture capital firm is taking a different route: Funding only startups that prioritize diversity.

Kapor Capital’s new Founders Commitment, announced Thursday, is believed to be a first in the venture world. It will be a standard item in all new investment agreements the firm makes. Kapor expects to invest $25 million over the next three years.

The pledge does not include hiring quotas. Instead it requires companies that seek Kapor’s investment to codify diversity goals and regularly report their progress.

The venture capital firm is allowing the 111 companies already in its portfolio — which include Bitly and Uber — to opt into taking the pledge. So far, 52 have. Bitly has, but Uber hasn’t.

The tech world

“We’ve seen how difficult it is for the big tech companies to try to retrofit diversity and inclusion,” said Freada Kapor Klein, a partner at Kapor Capital and a national expert on diversity. “Baking diversity and inclusion into a company’s culture early can provide the foundation to build a much more representative workforce in later stages of growth. We look forward to the day when one of these diverse startups takes off to become the next tech giant.”

A spokesman for the National Venture Capital Association said Thursday that he has has not heard of a firm implementing a diversity pledge for its portfolio companies. In August, the association led a group of 45 venture firms holding more than $100 billion in assets to commit to a set of goals designed to make workplaces more inclusive. But that pledge was not tied to a funding agreement like Thursday’s announcement by Kapor.

As more startups flock to Oakland because of its cheaper rents, the city has become a locus of cutting-edge thinking on diversity. Mayor Libby Schaaf has talked about “tech-quity” — which she defines in part as creating “equitable access to top-notch training and jobs for our residents.”

That conversation has intensified as Uber plans to open a 3,000-person office in downtown Oakland. Schaaf told The Chronicle last fall that instead of enforcing tech-quity through tax incentives or government mandates, change will be more sustainable if companies “see it as the right thing to do.”

Unfortunately, doing the right thing isn’t always part of the business plan. But raising money often is.

The pledge is another move by Kapor Klein and husband Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus — both longtime social activists — to diversify a tech industry where women and many minorities are grossly underrepresented.

Last August, the Kapors pledged $40 million over the next three years toward their goal of making the industry more inclusive. The couple oversees a family of organizations in the philanthropic and socially conscious investment world — Kapor Capital, the Kapor Center for Social Impact and Level Playing Field Institute — all trying to increase diversity.

According to Kapor Capital, the pledge asks startups to:

•“Establish diversity and inclusion goals that are appropriate for the company’s funding stage, employee size, customer base, and core business.” Firms must include progress reports on those goals in quarterly updates to investors.

•“Organize volunteer opportunities for employees to engage with underrepresented communities, especially those that reflect the company’s customer base.”

•“Participate in diversity and inclusion sessions to learn about what works and what doesn’t.”

Jonathan Nelson, founder of Hackers and Founders, a networking association in Silicon Valley, said ideas like this are necessary because most of the top venture capitalists working on Menlo Park’s “Sand Hill Road (have) no interest in diversity.”

“I think a lot of entrepreneurs are going to be happy to hear this because it will be a relief for them — it will allow them to tell some of their personal story,” Nelson said. “A lot of times, VCs don’t want to hear that. If you start talking about this stuff, they’ll think you’re some sort of hippie-dippy person who isn’t interested in making a ton of money and just want to change the world.”

Joe Garofoli is the San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer, covering national and state politics. He has worked at The Chronicle since 2000 and in Bay Area journalism since 1992, when he left the Milwaukee Journal. He is the host of “It’s All Political,” The Chronicle’s political podcast. Catch it here: bit.ly/2LSAUjA

He has won numerous awards and covered everything from fashion to the Jeffrey Dahmer serial killings to two Olympic Games to his own vasectomy — which he discussed on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” after being told he couldn’t say the word “balls” on the air. He regularly appears on Bay Area radio and TV talking politics and is available to entertain at bar mitzvahs and First Communions. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and a proud native of Pittsburgh. Go Steelers!